Doc Rivers takes blame for Paul Pierce fatigue

[Fencer reregistered]

Doc has 5 guys he's more or less comfortable playing on the perimeter -- Pierce, Ray Allen, Rondo, House, and Marbury. Ray isn't an ideal defensive SF and Eddie isn't an ideal defensive PG, but they both can get by.

And if KG has to play some SF when he comes back, so be it. KG/Perk/Baby should be a reasonably effective front line at both ends of the court.

[Banks2Pierce]

Anyone who has seen Billy or JR play in the DL know that they are clearly able to play spot minutes in an NBA rotation. Doc has a weird thing with rookies, except for(strangely enough) Big Baby.

Two seasons ago we had Telfair starting over Rondo and anyone with 2 eyes could see that Rondo was special. Maybe it helped Rondo in the longrun, so I am fine with that.

I do start to have a problem when we are blowing 48 minutes on Pierce IN A LOSS. Not only does it kill Pierce's legs for the playoffs, it kills Pierce's legs for crunch time. So, putting Billy or JR in there is not going to kill this team. Playing Pierce and Ray too many minutes will.

[Dave_From_NB]

I just don't get the complexity Doc. Sit Paul the last 4 minutes of the 1'st and 3'rd and have him play all the 2'nd and 4'th. Or have Paul play all the 1'st and 3'rd, and rest the first 4 minutes of the 2'nd and 4'th. And Ray just does the opposite of those 2 rest cycles as Paul.

Maybe they just need to hire a few more assistant coaches to keep track of minutes for Doc.

Oddly enough I accused myself of not paying attention to the Detroit game, I found myself thinking " how can you be watching the game, and not have noticed when Pierce was on the bench?" Little did I know at the time, that Doc was the one not paying attention.

[canman1971]

IMO, as a coach myself, when the flu hit my team this season, I had to adjust because I was only 8 deep, instead of 10. I always wanted my best players on the floor in the second half, especially the fourth, but they also needed to be rested. What I always did, is rest them as much as possible in the first half, even if we were playing poorly so I knew they would have enough gas to finish the game off. It wasn't too hard and see no reason why Doc cannot do the same. It worked and we finished 16-2 with a 10 winning streak to close out the season while fighting the flu.

[Avalanche]

the guys above who were talking about staggering the line ups, this has baffled me since getting Allen and KG here

why is it necissary to have an entire bench team come onto the floor with Pierce or Allen to get the starters rest..

he should be able to sub one or 2 guys into the game, have enough starters out there to keep the pace up but also get the important guys on our team some rest

We have some great potential line ups with a mix of bench and starting players, yet we have rarely, if ever seen them

No way Bill Walker cant just be subbed in for Paul and play with the starters a few minutes, does Doc expect the drop off to be that big?? i dont

[MyInsatiableOne]

^This is a good point. One thing about this year is the bench *is* weaker than last year. This year the problem has been Doc will take the entire starting unit out or leave only one guy (Ray, Paul) with the benchers. With only one guy who can create his own shot out there, they promptly lose the lead or get into a hole, necessitating the starters being put back in the play catch-up. It tires them out. I agree, leave a few starters out, sub in some bench guys, and then rotate...

[GreenDreamer]

I'm with you Ryan. I watch all the games with a friend of mine, and we've been on to Doc's Eddie issue for a while now. Last season the mantra was "If Rondo is struggling, Eddie plays more. If Eddie is shooting well, Eddie plays more." In other words, it didn't matter what Rondo was doing - if Eddie hit a three, Doc kept Eddie out there. Eddie hitting a fourth quarter three actually became "bad thing" because of Doc's lack of focus.

I want Marbury to start playing with Rondo. Doc still hasn't done that yet, and we need to get Paul some rest. A Rondo/Steph backcourt could really help to reduce the workload.

[ryaningf]

I'm with you Ryan. I watch all the games with a friend of mine, and we've been on to Doc's Eddie issue for a while now. Last season the mantra was "If Rondo is struggling, Eddie plays more. If Eddie is shooting well, Eddie plays more." In other words, it didn't matter what Rondo was doing - if Eddie hit a three, Doc kept Eddie out there. Eddie hitting a fourth quarter three actually became "bad thing" because of Doc's lack of focus.

I want Marbury to start playing with Rondo. Doc still hasn't done that yet, and we need to get Paul some rest. A Rondo/Steph backcourt could really help to reduce the workload.

In the postgame press conference, a reporter asked Doc why he kept Rondo on the bench until the 3 minute mark of the 4th. Doc, who's probably the coolest, nicest coach ever when it comes to taking questions from the press, basically interrupted the guy's question before he finished to tell him that Eddie hit a couple threes and 'single-handedly' got us back into the game and that he 'had' to play him because of that....Doc's attitude to the guy was like 'what a dumb question.' Real surprising if you ask me, especially considering that Doc's a good guy usually--you think he might have heard enough questions about playing House too long in the 4th? I feel like it happens in the 2nd quarter as well...

And, yes, it would be nice to start playing Marbury with Rondo. I hope to see that tonight, and some Bill Walker.